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Southeast
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January 9, 2013
SEC Accuses Former Va. Bank Execs Of Lying To Investors
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday hit three former Bank of the Commonwealth executives with a lawsuit in Virginia federal court, accusing them of violating securities laws by covering up a multi-million dollar hemorrhage to investors during the 2008 financial meltdown.
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January 8, 2013
11th Circ. Won't Revive Cruise Ship Workers' Tip Suits
The Eleventh Circuit on Monday refused to reinstate a pair of putative class actions lodged by cabin stewards who claimed Celebrity Cruises Inc. withheld tips passengers paid for their services, saying that U.S. labor laws do not apply to foreign workers on foreign-owned ships.
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January 8, 2013
Tax Evader Admits To Charges Filed After $780M UBS Deal
A former UBS account holder whose name the bank disclosed to U.S. authorities as part of a $780 million tax evasion settlement pled guilty to federal tax perjury Tuesday in Florida federal court, agreeing to pay $21 million in penalties.
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December 21, 2012
5th Circ. Says US Botched $43M Medicare Fraud Calculation
The Fifth Circuit on Thursday vacated a lower court’s $43 million judgment in a Medicare fraud suit after finding the figure exceeded insurers’ actual losses, which the defendants argued were less than half that amount.
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December 21, 2012
Collection Co. Takes Fight Over Harassment Suit To High Court
A debt collector has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether its settlement offer in a lawsuit revived by the Eleventh Circuit mooted the underlying harassment claims even though it did not agree to an entry of judgment.
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December 12, 2012
US, La. Construction Co. Settle Katrina Trailer FCA Suit
The U.S., a whistleblower, a New Orleans construction company and certain employees on Tuesday settled a False Claims Act suit alleging the company forged documents in connection with a $28 million Federal Emergency Management Agency contract for servicing trailers following Hurricane Katrina.
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November 30, 2012
Nalco Skirts Lawsuits Over Corexit Use After BP Oil Spill
A Louisiana federal judge on Tuesday dismissed personal injury lawsuits against chemical maker Nalco over the use of its oil dispersant Corexit after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, ruling that federal authority to clean up oil spills preempted injury claims by workers and residents.
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November 28, 2012
SC Builder Coverage Law Lives On, But Insurers Get Reprieve
Though South Carolina's high court last week upheld a state law declaring that general liability policies cover property damage and injuries from faulty construction, it also ruled the statute cannot apply retroactively, providing some relief to insurers fearing the legislature had rewritten their contracts.
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November 2, 2012
Florida West Fined $1M For Price-Fixing After Rare Plea
A federal judge sentenced Florida West International Airways Inc. on Friday to pay $1 million over a five-year period after allowing the carrier to make an unusual no-contest plea to charges that it conspired to fix air cargo rates.
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October 31, 2012
DOJ Can't Stop Florida West Bias Claims In Price-Fixing Suit
A Florida federal judge on Wednesday refused to seal a filing from Florida West International Airways Inc. concerning allegegations that the accountant prosecutors are using as an expert witness in the price-fixing case has a criminal past and is biased, saying the government hasn’t established any legal basis to ax the documents.
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October 29, 2012
DOJ Fires Back At Claims Of Price-Fixing Expert's Bias
The U.S. Department of Justice pushed Friday to block Florida West International Airways Inc. from making its "irrelevant," "unsubstantiated" and "mythical" claims that the government's expert accountant is biased against the company at an upcoming price-fixing sentencing hearing.
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October 26, 2012
DOJ Wants At Least $1M Fine In Airline Price-Fixing Case
The U.S. Department of Justice pushed a federal judge Thursday to fine Florida West International Airways Inc. at least $1 million after it pled no contest to air cargo price-fixing charges, but the airline countered that the penalty would amount to three years' worth of profits.
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October 26, 2012
Miami Beach Hotel Can't Oust Manager Marriott As Suits Loom
A New York state judge on Friday said a boutique Miami hotel owner can't yet boot a Marriott International Inc. affiliate out of a hotel management agreement, issuing a preliminary injunction preventing the owner from unilaterally canceling the contract following an early-morning raid.
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October 25, 2012
Westport Must Cover Hotel In Legionnaires' Suit, 11th Circ. Says
An Eleventh Circuit panel on Thursday upheld a lower court’s ruling that Westport Insurance Corp. must cover VN Hotel Group LLC in litigation over the death of a man who allegedly contracted Legionnaires' disease while staying at a Quality Suites in Orlando, Fla.
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October 11, 2012
SC High Court Ruling Highlights Gaps In Dated E-Privacy Law
South Carolina's highest court ruled Wednesday that a federal wiretap law does not cover emails that are read but not deleted from a server, deepening a court divide over when companies and individuals can keep their electronic communications private under a statute that attorneys say has failed to keep up with changes in technology.
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October 4, 2012
Florida West Must Give DOJ Docs In Price-Fixing Case
A Florida federal judge on Tuesday ordered Florida West International Airways Inc. to release business records the U.S. Department of Justice says it needs to recommend a proper sentence following the airline's no-contest plea in a price-fixing prosecution.
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October 2, 2012
Female Wal-Mart Employees File Bias Class Action In Tenn.
In another regional discrimination suit to be filed against Wal-Mart Stores Inc., three Tennessee women alleged on Tuesday that female employees of the giant retailer in five states have been unfairly denied equal pay and equal opportunities for promotion to management positions.
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October 1, 2012
DOJ Wants Florida West's Financials In Price-Fixing Case
The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday asked a Florida federal judge to force Florida West International Airways Inc. to release key financial documents the government says it needs to make a sentencing recommendation for the airline following its no-contest plea in a price-fixing scheme.
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September 28, 2012
Sham Litigation Claims Nixed In Androgel Pay-For-Delay MDL
A Georgia federal judge on Friday dismissed antitrust allegations that Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed sham patent infringement litigation against generic rivals in order to delay the entry of competing versions of Androgel from the market through a reverse payment settlement.
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September 26, 2012
High Court May Redraw Line On US Liability For Flooding
Environmental and property law experts are eagerly awaiting next week's oral arguments for a U.S. Supreme Court case that will likely draw a new line for when federally mandated flooding constitutes an improper taking of land, potentially opening the door to a bevy of new suits and impacting Hurricane Katrina-related cases in lower courts.
Expert Analysis
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The Impact Of Terminating Employed Physicians
Two recent cases — one from the Georgia Court of Appeals and one from the Ninth Circuit — have highlighted the need for hospitals that employ physicians to consider the collateral consequences of exercising termination rights under employment agreements, says Ralph Levy of Dickinson Wright PLLC.
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Va. Offers Protection Concerning Certificates Of Insurance
When there is a conflict or discrepancy between a certificate of insurance and the actual policy, the latter controls. In Virginia, the General Assembly has provided some measure of protection with a new law outlining what a certificate of insurance is and requiring certain language to be included, says Collin Hite of Hirschler Fleischer PC.
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Case Study: In Re Maharaj
In the first circuit court opinion to address the issue, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently held that the absolute priority rule applies in cases filed by individual debtors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The In re Maharaj decision further magnifies the conflict in the courts that have decided the issue, says Nicholas Meriwether of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC.
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Changing Landscape Of Same-Sex Couples' Inheritance Rights
In a trailblazing decision, a Minnesota court has ruled that a partner in a same-sex marriage may receive full spousal inheritance rights under the state’s intestacy statutes — despite the fact that same-sex marriages are not lawful in Minnesota. The decision highlights the importance of companies staying current on the developing law of same-sex inheritance rights, say Janet Evans and Matt Frerichs of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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A Coal Industry Victory Over The EPA
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled illegal the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's final guidance pertaining to Clean Water Act permits for new or expanded surface coal mining in Kentucky and West Virginia. For one, the guidance infringed upon states' authority to adopt their own water quality standards and police their own state waters, says Mindy Barfield of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP.
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Clarifying Georgia's Covenant Law
The Eleventh Circuit's opinion in Becham is very likely to resolve one of the lingering uncertainties regarding the Georgia covenant statute — but in a way that will require some employers to revisit whether their recently executed covenant agreements remain viable, says Brett Coburn of Alston & Bird LLP.
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The Benefit Corporation: A Silent Trend
For the past two years, state legislatures have been authorizing corporations to form a hybrid corporate legal structure called the benefit corporation. This much legislative action — nine states have passed legislation and 11 states are currently considering it — would seemingly produce an equal reaction, but this part for-profit/part-nonprofit corporation has not garnered much public or corporate awareness, say attorneys with Herrick Feinstein LLP.
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Risks Of Sharing Employee Data With 3rd-Party Vendors
The class action recently filed against Winn-Dixie and a third-party vendor, Purchasing Power LLC, highlights the potential risks associated with sharing employee or customer data with third-party vendors, and underscores the need for companies to ensure that the data security practices of third-party vendors are consistent with those of the companies themselves, says Kevin McGinty of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
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The Careful Analysis Of 'Advertising Injury' Claims
Given what seems to be a never-ending flood of intellectual property litigation, it is important to remember that insurance coverage is available for some types of claims. However, the analysis of “advertising injury” claims can be tricky, and a decision from the Eighth Circuit, Interstate Bakeries v. OneBeacon Insurance, demonstrates how fact-sensitive the process can be, says Alexander Anglim of Anglim Law LLC.
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Little V. Shell — Bad News For Gov't Contractors
The Fifth Circuit's decision in Little v. Shell Exploration & Production Co. suggests that government employees can bring whistleblower actions under the False Claims Act even if their agency superiors do not find the alleged misconduct worthy of further investigation. This could increase the number of meritless qui tam suits brought by disgruntled and self-interested government employees, say attorneys with Wiley Rein LLP.